European Boxing Union

The International Boxing Union (IBU) was created June 1911 in Paris, France. It was the first attempt to create a unified international governing body for professional boxing. Signators of the Protocol for the IBU were the President of Fédération Française de Boxe et de Lutte for France, the President of Fédération Belge de Boxe for Belgium, and the President of Société Française de Propagation de la Boxe Anglaise who acted on behalf of some American boxing authorities. Switzerland joined the IBU in November 1913. Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Brazil, Argentine, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom also joined. By 1922, the UK had withdrawn support, and the US was never fully committed.[1]

The IBU suspended operations with the outbreak of World War I, but resumed action on February 5, 1920.

Headquartered in Paris, the IBU was in the hands of the Nazis and Italian Fascists during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. On 5 June 1942, the Associazione Pugilistica Professionistica Europea (APPE) was formally established, replacing the IBU. Vittorio Mussolini, eldest son of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, was declared the APPE's first President. The first official meeting of the APPE's steering committee was held June 7, who recognized the following European champions: Enrico Urbinati (fly), Gino Bondavalli (bantam and feather), Ascenzo Botta (light), vacant - it was announced to Marcel Cerdan that he had lost his title (welter), Jupp Besselmann (middle), Luigi Musina (light-heavy), and Max Schmeling (heavy).

The lira was adopted as the official currency for bout and congress fees. The APPE also changed the division weights by adopting the kilogram: 51 kilos (fly), 54 (bantam), 58 (feather), 62 (light), 67 (junior middle—abolishing the term "welter"), 73 (middle), 80 (light-heavy), and 80-plus (heavy). Ultimately, all European bouts held under the APPE's aegis were matched at these weights until December 1944.

It was planned that after the Axis won World War II, the APPE would be transformed into the APPI (Associazione Pugilistica Professionistica Internazionale) and be headquartered in Rome. But by December 1, 1944, the IBU/APPE was extinct.

The British Boxing Board of Control and the newly formed French FFB tried to constitute a new European body—the European Boxing Association (EBA)--but other countries protested because the two veteran countries would have reintroduced the principle that the European Champion would be decided by a bout between British and French champions. Instead, in 1946, the European Boxing Union (EBU) was established.

In 1963, the president of Mexico, Adolfo López Mateos, invited the EBU, the British Boxing Board of Control, the New York State Athletic Commission, and the national sanctioning organizations of nine other countries to form the World Boxing Council. The EBU's personnel ultimately decided to recognize regional title bouts as a federation under the WBC.

During the 1990s, the EBU began to recognize women's boxing regional championship bouts, and welcomed former Yugoslavian country Bosnia and Herzegovina as a member country.

Currently, winning an EBU title is considered important, but not necessary, by many European boxers in order to go on and fight for a world title of the four most widely recognized world championship boxing organizations, the WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO. Following the formation of the European Economic Union, the EBU issued subtitles for the Union countries (EBU-EU title) and "External" countries (EBU-EE title), below their main EBU title which would cover all 50 countries on the continent and 3/4 billion residents.

In light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EBU announced that it would not certify any championship contests involving boxers from Russia and Belarus.[2]